Benson sided with one of Martinson's attorneys, Paul Cassell, that Martinson should have instead been held to the standards of the Eighth Amendment, which covers malicious and sadistic behavior.

"I appreciate the hard work of the defense. I feel vindicated by the judge's decision to dismiss the charges today," Martinson said in a prepared statement through Cassell.

Martinson was charged last June with deprivation of rights under color of law for allegedly impeding an inmate's right to "be free from the use of unreasonable force by a law enforcement officer."

According to the defense, three fellow Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were with Martinson as he escorted Fabian Maldonado-Pineda to another cell on July 3, 2013, and witnessed Martinson's "hip toss" that prosecutors deem constituted excessive force.

Prosecutor Carlos Esqueda had argued in a written filing that Maldonado-Pineda was more of a "pretrial detainee" than an inmate at the time. Esqueda claims Maldonado-Pineda had completed his sentence for his criminal case, and had been in ICE custody after a judge ordered that he be deported.

"... [He] was no longer an inmate serving a sentence and was not facing a punishment for a criminal conviction," Esqueda wrote. "Because the victim was no longer an 'inmate' and was seized pending a civil deportation hearing, his seizure fell within the 'other seizure' provision of the Fourth Amendment."

But on Thursday, Benson decided that Maldonado-Pineda was "unquestionably in a full-time, custodial" circumstance.